@ movocelot: Actually, we’ve got lots of tectonic faults. Most of them run southwest to northeast, the consequence of the continental shelf slipping into the Gulf. Some are even visible to the naked eye, and they do affect how we engineer our infrastructure. There are also lots of faults around our salt domes, but only the oil producers really care about those.

Need a name that gives fans a sense of place. “Dugout Woods” or “Basewood”. Or if new parking lots require detention ponds, the team could be the “Lakes of Baseball”. Of course something with a southern feel would be best but I think “Homerun Plantation” might unintentionally ruffle some feathers.

Definitely need a minor-league name, maybe the Bulls (as in Bull Durham), or even better, I’m sure the local Skeeters wouldn’t mind the ‘major league’ team borrowing the name. We’ll need minor league-style promotions, too, like a Mustache Growing Contest, an Ugly Sweater Night, or a Salute to Indoor Plumbing. Whatever it is they call the Houston MLB team, it’s going to be terrible for years to come, and frankly I don’t give a damn what they call it.

They dumped “Colt .45s” because someone from Colt Firearms figured out that baseball teams sell souvenirs. Colt Firearms was perfectly OK with a bunch of pro ball players prancing around with the name “Colt .45s” on their shirts but when they started selling stuff, like toy guns, with the name on them they started protesting. Chances are that if it had come to a legal battle, HSA might well have been able to win, but it was easier and cheaper just to change the name, especially with the Dome about to open. Also, at that time there was a lot of excitement about the space program and the “future,” and Texas’ cowboy past was starting to fall out of fashion. There are stories about crates and crates of what would now be very collectible Colt .45s merchandise being bulldozed into landfills and covered over by Hofheinz employees.